Chongqing Dongqiao Village Aging Upgrading Project

The age-friendly renewal of Dongqiao Village in Changling Town, Wanzhou District, Chongqing, is the city's first rural senior-upgrading project, constructed by Chongqing Guogao Construction and designed by Daohe Design Chongqing Sixth Studio, for the Changling Town government. In early spring 2021, the design team first arrived at Dongqiao Village, which, like many villages in the Sichuan-Chongqing region, lies among green hills whose young people have left for work, leaving behind only the elderly and children. The first impression was quiet, barren, and lacking vitality. Dongqiao was a Chongqing municipal-level poverty village until it was lifted out of poverty as a whole in 2015, and as aging deepens, the mismatch between rural public space and elderly residents' needs has become acute. The 22,768-square-meter intervention, 475 meters long, occupies the core public area of the village. The team's challenge was to improve happiness within a limited budget, addressing both physical and spiritual needs, and to choose between trendy rural landmarks and a deep excavation of local farming culture. The design works across four dimensions: safety, convenience, suitability, and participation. Safety calls for flat, anti-slip surfaces and the removal of hazards; continuous barrier-free handrails are installed along both sides of the entire route. Convenience means reducing steps, adding accessible ramps, and leveling the ground. Suitability is addressed through seating, fitness equipment, plazas, and activity spaces. Participation is encouraged through a tai-chi plaza, apparatus fitness, a health walking loop, and a pebble massage path. Farming culture is awakened by collecting idle farm tools from villagers and displaying them as landscape nodes, stirring memories of busy harvest days and reinforcing social identity. Bamboo weaving is used extensively for railings and fences, warm and unpretentious. Local native plants are chosen, and discarded old stone slabs, bricks, and tiles are reclaimed as paving and wall cladding, ecological and low-cost. A leaning pear tree, a long-time resident, and all existing trees are preserved. After completion, the team returned twice and saw the village transformed within a year, with smiles on residents' faces. The project is the first of its kind in Chongqing's rural revitalization context, paving the way for rural age-friendly upgrading. Improved environment, easier mobility, and rising happiness, together with the government's industrial adjustments, have stimulated the local economy. The team hopes design will drive population return and support rural revitalization. Project details are limited in the source material.